Queensland parliament is poised to pass legislative changes that will divert thousands of people out of the courts and into health and education programs each year in a landmark shift in the state’s approach to illicit substances that new polling shows has popular support. […]
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Groovin the Moo fails to secure pill testing again as insurers remain risk averse
Pill testing will not be available onsite at this year’s Groovin the Moo festival in Canberra after exorbitant insurance premiums meant the service was too costly to offer, but CanTEST is expanding its services on the festival weekend. […]
Canberra’s Groovin the Moo music festival will again be without pill-testing, as insurance becomes 22 times more expensive
Groovin the Moo will be without pill-testing when it returns to Canberra later this month. […]
HRA & PTA Media Release – 17 April 2023
Tasmanian government unmoved on pill testing despite drug warning to Panama festival-goers
The ACT is the only jurisdiction to allow fixed and onsite drug testing. Backed by Pill Testing Australia, the CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service uses a face-to-face service.
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HRA submission to the Qld Police Powers & Responsibilities Amendment Bill 2023
Qld Parliamentary Legal Affairs & Safety Committee
[…]Strengthening Injecting-Related Harm Reduction in Prisons
March 2023
[…]Joint Letter re 2nd Melbourne MSIR
HRI23 – Hepatitis Pre Conference Program Available
Pill testing is coming to Queensland. Here’s what can we learn from programs overseas
Queensland’s move aligns the state with a growing international norm. In fact, the evidence to support such services has existed for decades.
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What is found in illicit party drugs and how pill testing will work in Queensland
The Queensland government has announced it will be the second jurisdiction in Australia to provide illicit drug testing, aiming to change the behaviour of users and reduce the risk of harm. […]
Queensland Pill Testing – HRA Interview
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Queensland to introduce pill testing in move away from ‘1950s …
Queensland will roll out pill-testing sites in an attempt to curb the harmful effects of illicit drugs. […]
The Australian Greens are moving ahead with the first national plan to legalise cannabis.
Senator David Shoebridge, on behalf of the Greens, has obtained compelling constitutional law advice that provides a path forward for Federal Parliament to legalise cannabis for adult use across the country. […]
Australia becomes first country to recognise psychedelics as medicines
Associate Professor David Caldicott, an emergency department doctor who appeared at the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide to advocate the drugs be used for returned soldiers suffering from psychological trauma, said he was pleasantly surprised by Friday’s decision. […]
Melbourne’s injecting room delay puts lives at risk as heroin overdoses spike in CBD
Stalled progress on the city’s second safe-injecting facility is heaping pressure on community health professionals
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Canberra’s Free Pill-Testing Service Shows Most Ket Isn’t Ket
“There’s a storyline that drug users don’t care and they’re reckless and don’t give a shit about their own health, but it’s just not true.” […]
ACT extends confidential pill-testing service CanTEST as evaluation shows most users discard tainted drugs
“The lack of pill testing services outside Canberra is an ongoing tragedy for far too many people and families, and begs the question of how much more evidence is required for these services to be established,” Mr Vumbaca said. […]
We’ve detected a potent opioid in Canberra. Here’s what we know about it
Australia’s first government-sanctioned drug-checking service CanTEST has issued its inaugural ‘red alert’, the highest level of warning, following the detection of metonitazene in a yellow pill masquerading as the pharmaceutical drug oxycodone. We should be very worried about this drug’s emergence in Australia. […]